The Thanksgiving holiday is only a week away, but Bridge City is busy with making improvements to streets, sewers, man-hole covers, and fire plugs. The City Council met Tuesday, and City Manager Jerry Jones gave an update of projects on going or upcoming in Bridge City.
The Elsie Street ditch project is going well. All the pipe has been laid on Arthur Street. Crews are working on driveways, back fills, and clean up. That work will be done before work re-starts on Elsie Street.
Bridge City’s part of the Elsie Street ditch project is quite extensive. The city will clear ditches behind the houses and some of the other ditches. “After Thanksgiving we’ll try to get in to start doing our part of that,” Jones said.
Bids for the man-hole project will be received by the city on Thursday, November 21. The Texas Water Development Board grant has been received by Bridge City to pay for the work. Awarding a contract for the project should be on the agenda for the next City Council meeting in December. In a related project bids on the fire plug replacements are being reviewed by the city staff.
The Center Street ditch project has bids to do the work. The engineers for the project are putting together a scope of work for the contract which will be presented to the council when it is prepared. The project should start relatively soon.
The City Council awarded Placo Ltd. the contract to perform improvements on a screw press at the Waste Water Treatment Plant. This work will help prevent problems that were cited by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality at the plant.
Traylor and Associates will administer the city’s Texas Community Development Block Grant program for this coming year. The council approved Traylor as the administrator Tuesday to oversee the improvement of sewer lines for low to moderate income residences.
A request from Centerpoint Energy for a $3.15 rate increase was unanimously denied by the members of the City Council. The increase would have been for the average residential customer.
Bridge City is allowed to cast 83 votes for candidates to be on the Board of Directors for the Orange County Appraisal District. The City Council cast all 83 votes for Tim Schossow.
Texas Game Warden Raj Ataya gave some updates to the council on fishing, hunting, and boating regulations that have changed as of September. Several bag limits and antler point rules were modified by the recent session of the state legislature.
Ataya started by telling of a new regulation concerning lanyards on the engine cutoff switches are now mandatory to be worn on all vessels that have such a device. Most modern boats have such a kill switch installed in them. The new law does not require owners of older boats to have the cutoff switch installed.
The daily bag limit for speckled sea trout has been reduced from 10 to 5 fish in the area around Orange County. Below Matagorda County to the border with Mexico the daily limit has always been five speckled trout.
This year the legislature decided to match limits statewide at the request of biologist doing some testing of limits and resources. Ataya indicated it has been awhile since he has seen anyone with five speckled trout so it should not have a significant impact on local fishermen he thinks.
Duck season has not been very good this year in Orange County, but it is going well in Jefferson County. Ataya reminded the daily bag limit for ducks is six with other restrictions on the type of ducks that can be bagged in a day.
Ataya assured the antler limit for bucks to be killed by hunters is still 13 inches. Orange County is an antler restricted county which limits hunters to one big buck and a second buck that has at least one unbranched antler of no more than one inch through the skin.
Council woman Terri Gauthier is enthusiastic about the response to the Trees for Bridge City project. The program has been put on KOGT and social media, and Gauthier informed that there have already been 100 citizens who have applied to receive one of the free Oak trees for their yards in December.
Citizens in Bridge City can call the City Hall between 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM on weekdays to be put on the list for a free tree. Bridge City will distribute 250 trees on Friday, December 14, at the Bridge City School District’s bus barn on West Roundbunch Road.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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